Senate Votes For Arkansas Works Expansion

March 07, 2018CrainMedia

The Arkansas Senate on Tuesday (March 6) approved a Department of Human Services appropriation bill for Arkansas Works healthcare expansion with no votes to spare, paving the way for the General Assembly to put the finishing touches on Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s $5.44 billion budget and close the 30-day fiscal session next week.

By a vote of 27-2, Senate Bill (SB) 30 was approved after longtime Arkansas Works opponent Sen. Alan Clark, R-Hot Springs, provided the deciding vote after an hour of floor debate. Arkansas Works is the state’s Medicaid health insurance program developed by lawmakers in 2013 as part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), otherwise known as Obamacare.

Immediately after the tight vote, Gov. Hutchinson congratulated the Senate for passage of the DHS’s Division of Medical Services appropriation bill in the two-year budget. MORE